It's like a 1,000,000% better than The Clone Wars was when it first started (a lot of fans conveniently forget how terrible the movie and most of the first season was) and that show dramatically improved over time, so I'm excited to see where things go with Rebels. The last three episodes have been excellent and I've heard good things about "Empire Day." The only episode I haven't enjoyed was "Fighter Flight," which was silly and the development between Ezra and Zebb doesn't seem to have carried into the following episodes. The weakest link thus far is Chopper. His antics hurt the show so I hope he gets blown up at some point or at the very least gets reprogrammed. The idea of an anti-social astromech is funny, in theory, but for that to work he also has to be competent at his duties -- Chopper just antagonizes the crew and puts them in danger, so why is he there?

I liked seeing the TIE Advanced V1 prototype. While its ability to fold its wings didn't make it into the version Vader flew in ANH, there's no rule to say early versions couldn't have used it. I thought it was interesting to find out that Ezra was born on the day that 'democracy died.'

The style of this new show is ok. I like some of the textures that vary from Clone Wars, but the writing for this show is just not good at all. The dialog is laughable at times, and the situations are silly (why drop off walkers and troopers when you have a flying ship with giant cannons?)

Even though the Clone Wars was more directed at kids, the quality of writing was great I thought. The last 3 episodes of the Clone Wars (the ones about Yoda - released on Netflix) were downright movie worthy.

I'm a little bummed Rex is going to be a "good guy." I think it'd be a lot more compelling if they didn't just say, "Hey, you know those characters you watched on Clone Wars? Here they are! They're all going to be on team kid Jedi!" If they made Rex Imperial-affiliated (because it's his army and because the 501st marched on the Jedi temple and slaughtered the Jedi), that'd make for some interesting conflict.

Also, they better have a really good reason to be bringing in A-Wings and B-Wings this early. I'm really not prepared for all the good stories of the 90s to be trampled over all at once.

In regards to Rex, I feel like The Clone Wars did a pretty good job of establishing that he wouldn't fold into the Empire. The Deserter, Umbara, and Fives story arcs definitely set that up. If the show had gotten to continue, and we'd gotten to see that play out, he probably wouldn't feel so shoe-horned in. Him being Imperial-affiliated would be compelling, though I don't know how the Empire would use him, given his apparently advanced age. Maybe an officer, I guess? But we already have Kallus.

Excited for Hondo's return as well, though his design has experienced a major downgrade from Clone Wars. Yikes. Why can't George Lucas funnel some of his funds into this show, too?

The new inquisitors look cool, and remind me of the Dark Side Adepts. I can't tell what species the big guy is, but he looks like another Pau'an, which makes me wonder if he has some sort of relation to the original inquisitor. I've read speculation that the female one is Barriss, but I prefer the theory that it's the missing Leonis sister mentioned in "Breaking Ranks."

Best part? James Earl Jones is actually voicing Vader. I got chills during the "your master has deceived you" line.

Maveritchell wrote:Also, they better have a really good reason to be bringing in A-Wings and B-Wings this early. I'm really not prepared for all the good stories of the 90s to be trampled over all at once.

Yeah that's about the only thing I didn't like in the new trailer. Why couldn't we have just gotten Z-95s instead of A-Wings? Maybe, just maybe, those are R-22 Spearheads instead of A-wings. One can hope, right? But the B-wing has no business being there at all.

EraOfDesann wrote:I've read speculation that the female one is Barriss

Oh god please no. It better not be. I already hate the last 4 episodes of season 5 because of the poor writing in regards to Barriss as it is.

Yeah, I like that story arc but the character assassination of Barriss really hurts it. And her becoming an inquisitor wouldn't make much sense, anyways. As I said, I hope it's the Leonis sister. The mask definitely seems to indicate that the character's identity is of some importance. Or not. Maybe a masked inquisitor is just easier to animate or looks cool. *shrug*

The giant green worm monster that they fight on that desert planet looks a lot like the Dagobah boss from Super Empire Strikes Back.

THEWULFMAN wrote:Yeah that's about the only thing I didn't like in the new trailer. Why couldn't we have just gotten Z-95s instead of A-Wings? Maybe, just maybe, those are R-22 Spearheads instead of A-wings. One can hope, right? But the B-wing has no business being there at all.

The B-Wing is probably being presented as a prototype being stolen (based on the scenes in the trailer). That's a little more palatable-ish.

I like the show, but there's this undercurrent of "we want to do everything in the original trilogy because that was the cool one" - but they also want to set everything a decade before anything is supposed to happen. There's this icky feeling of fan fiction to the whole thing, because they're not bothering to come up with anything new, conceptually (down to the "let's go back to the McQuarrie mine").